Finished

In hindsight i probably would not have decided to print on wood with T-shirt transfer paper. Occasionally you get a really nice print - but usually you don't. Inks expensive and so is the transfer paper. in the end the result was OK - perhaps not as beautiful as i had envisioned it - a tad more rustic than intended. but it is a one off - and my daughter likes it.

Binding

So I decided to go with a simple copper wire to bind to keep in with the rustic feel of the book. I will feed it through a decorative tube on the outside of the book - hard to describe. Here's something similiar:

http://itagstudios.squarespace.com/

Finished Shooting

So I have completed all of the shooting for the book (which is the easy part). Now to edit them all and print them onto the wood. I still have to work out the binding too...

This is one of the shots I might use that  I edited very quickly just to demonstrate the feel of the images.

Progress

So I have decided to go with the "children's" book idea. The book is about a little girl who lives in a space (probably a wardrobe) that she doesn't want to leave, because she intuitively knows that if she does she will grow old. Now I know that is a little Narnia like but in the end it wont have the same look or feel, so I don't think it will matter that much. The book will have wooden pages, not to sure about the binding at this stage - either leather twine or metal rings. The pages will look something like this mock up  (this laptop monitor is way off so I have no idea what this really looks like!):

Photo Books

http://signaturebook.com.au/index.html

http://www.snapfish.com.au/snapfishau/photobook/campaignName=semau_google_photobook?247SEM

Book Ideas

Two ideas:
1. A fictional, darkish children's book. I have a simple story idea that i am working on.

2. My Grandmother lived in the town of West Wyalong, and at least once a year for years and years we would travel their to spend time with her. I was thinking the book could document the drive from Canberra to West Wyalong and all of the little towns or certain landmarks etc that I remember. Or I could simply document the town of WW and the little things I remember fro when I was a child like the park where I used to play the railroad I would treasure hunt at and my Grandmothers old house of course. I might combine the drive, the town and see if I can gain access to my Grandmothers house - that would be cool.

This book would be printed in a standard hard cover design with perfect binding and a nice cover image I hope.

Photographically, I would just try and take the best shots that I can and see If a style develops.

Present Tense Exhibition NPG

Christopher Allen, writing for the Australian (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/through-a-lens-darkly/story-e6frg8n6-1225885738649)  slammed this exhibition - basically describing it as boring, "One struggles to find any piece that is memorable or even particularly interesting, let alone anything that touches the imagination more deeply". On the piece which myself and my class mates engaged with he says "Worst of all, though, is a dreadful piece by Rineke Dijkstra, of girls dancing in a desultory way against a white backdrop; we don't really need this to understand that teenage girls dancing in nightclubs may be alienated, and meanwhile the invasive disco music from this room makes half the exhibition unbearable". Reading this critique is a bit like leaving a cinema after watching a movie that you found really thought provoking and engaging, only to hear the well to do couple walking in front of you describing the movie as a boring movie made for simpletons. Oh well, i may not be educated regarding these things, but I really enjoyed the piece and I think that it was an insight into the lives of people that is rarely seen by those who live outside of that world.

Photograph sourced at: http://bintphotobooks.blogspot.com/2008/08/portraits-by-rineke-dijkstra.html